JPH0678263A - Electronic camera system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain overall high picture quality by recording a sensitivity increase setting value set at image pickup together with picture information and controlling noise reduction correction and q-characteristic correction for the information in addition in the picture processing at reproduction so as to prevent deterioration in the S/N. CONSTITUTION:After picture information obtained by a magnetic reproduction head 11 is processed by a reproduction signal processing circuit 13, the result is ADD-converted by an A/D converter 14 and the converted information is stored in a memory 15. On the other hand, an output of the magnetic reproduction head 11 is given to an ID signal detection circuit 16, from which an IS signal is read and sensitivity setting information set at the image pickup in the ID signal is fed to a digital signal processor (DSP) 18 via a system controller 17. The DSP 18 communicates data with the memory 15 to process the data in the memory 15. The data in the memory 15 are fed to an output device 19. Then at least either of the quantity for noise reduction correction and the quantity for q-characteristic correction is controlled based on the sensitivity increase setting value at the image pickup.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an electronic camera system for recording / reproducing images.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is an SV camera system.

In this system, a still image is captured as an electric signal by a solid-state image pickup device, recorded on an appropriate recording medium (2 ″ video floppy disk, hard disk, card memory, etc.), and the recorded image is reproduced.

Conventionally, in such an electronic camera system, stroboscopic photographing is generally performed when photographing in a dark condition. However, since a strobe has a limited reach, a sensitivity up switch may be added recently to supplement it.

This is to switch the gain of the electric circuit system so that even if a small output is output from the image pickup device, the output is greatly amplified and output.

On the contrary, a high image quality mode switch may be added. In this case, the gain of the electric system is pressed down for photographing, and when the high image quality mode is set, the light is sufficiently incident on the image sensor, and the S / N of the image is improved.

In the conventional electronic camera system as described above, white balance is generally taken. This white balance corresponds to the chromatic adaptation of the human eye, and when shooting with a camera, RGB (light 3
This is a function to adjust the gain of the primary colors.

[0008]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional electronic camera system, when the sensitivity up switch is used, the noise generated from the sensor is also amplified, and the overall S / N ratio is increased. There is a problem that the image quality deteriorates and the image quality deteriorates.

Further, when the "high image quality mode" is set, there is a problem in that the utilization efficiency of light is lowered and it becomes uneconomical.

Further, in the above-mentioned conventional electronic camera system, the gain of B (black) must be increased significantly when the color temperature is low, and conversely, when the color temperature is high, the gain of R (red) is increased. You have to increase the gain significantly. Thus, in either case, S /
There is a problem that N is deteriorated and the image quality is deteriorated.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic camera system capable of preventing deterioration of S / N and obtaining a comprehensive high image quality.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a first invention of the present invention is an electronic camera which captures an image as an electric signal by a solid-state image pickup device, records it on a recording medium, and reproduces the recorded image. In the system, sensitivity setting means for setting the sensitivity at the time of photographing, recording means for recording the setting conditions of the sensitivity setting means together with image information, and noise reduction correction control and f based on the setting conditions by the sensitivity setting means at the time of reproduction. And a control unit that performs at least one of the special correction control.

In order to achieve the same object, a second aspect of the present invention is also provided.
The present invention relates to an electronic camera system for capturing an image as an electric signal by a solid-state imaging device, recording it on a recording medium, and reproducing the recorded image, and recording means for recording white balance information together with the image information at the time of photographing, It is characterized in that it is provided with control means for performing noise reduction control and color correction control based on white balance information.

In order to achieve the same object, a second control means for adaptively performing at least one of the noise reduction correction control and the f special correction control according to the image information is provided, and the setting condition by the sensitivity setting means is set. In consideration of this, it is desirable to perform the control by the second control means.

[0015]

In the electronic camera system of the first invention, the setting conditions of the sensitivity setting means are recorded together with the image information by the recording means, and the noise reduction correction control and the f special correction control are performed by the control means based on the setting conditions during reproduction. Do at least one of the above. As a result, the S / N of the entire image is improved and the image quality can be improved.

In the electronic camera system of the second invention, the white balance information is recorded together with the image information at the time of photographing, and the noise reduction control and the color correction control are performed by the control means based on the white balance information at the time of reproduction. As a result, the S / N of the entire image is improved and the image quality is improved.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a camera side in an electronic camera system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a lens, and the optical image formed on the solid-state image sensor 2 via this lens 1 is
After being converted into an electric signal as an image signal by the solid-state imaging device 2, it is processed by a recording signal processing circuit 4 via a camera signal processing circuit 3 and is then processed by a magnetic recording head 5 to a recording medium (for example, 2 ″). The data is recorded on a video floppy disk 6. This recording medium 6 is rotated by a motor 7.

When the surroundings are dark at the time of photographing, the sensitivity changeover switch (sensitivity setting means) 8 is changed over, whereby the system control 9 changes over the gain of the camera signal processing circuit 3 to increase the amplification factor.

At this time, the ID signal generator 10 is also sent with information that "sensitivity has increased". Then, the signal from the ID signal generator 10 is sent to the recording signal processing circuit 4 and is multiplexed and recorded with the image signal (image information).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the reproducing device side of the electronic camera system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, the image information recorded on the recording medium 6 is picked up by the magnetic reproducing head 11.
The recording medium 6 is rotationally driven by the motor 12.

The image information obtained by the magnetic reproducing head 11 is processed by the reproducing signal processing circuit 13, and then A / D converted by the A / D converter 14 to be digital data, and then stored in the memory 15. To be done.

On the other hand, the output of the magnetic reproducing head 11 is the ID
The ID signal is read by the signal detection circuit 16. Among the read ID signals, the sensitivity setting information at the time of shooting is sent to the DSP (digital signal processor) 18 via the system control 17. The DSP 18 is a digital image signal processing circuit that communicates data with the memory 15 and processes the data in the memory 15. Then, the data in the memory 15 is sent to the output device 19.

In the DSP 18, at least one of the amount of noise reduction correction and the amount of f special correction is controlled by the sensitivity increase setting value at the time of photographing. That is, the state in which the sensitivity is increased is a state in which the gain of the circuit system is actually increased, and the noise of the sensor is also expanded, so that the total noise is large. Therefore, the amount of noise reduction correction is increased, and the processing by the DSP 18 is performed in the direction in which the f characteristic is not increased.

On the other hand, if the sensitivity is not increased, or if the sensitivity is set lower for the purpose of "high image quality", the amount of noise reduction correction is reduced, or the correction is not performed, and f Turn up.

In general, when noise reduction correction is applied, particularly high frequency components (so-called details) of minute signals are reduced. Therefore, when noise is small, it is desirable that the amount of noise reduction correction is small.

[Second Embodiment] Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, the same parts as those in the first embodiment described above will be described with the same reference numerals in the drawings.

The present embodiment differs from the first embodiment described above in the configuration on the camera side, in place of the sensitivity changeover switch 8 of FIG. 1 and a white balance (WB) sensor 20.
The other configuration on the camera side and the configuration on the playback device side are the same as those in the first embodiment described above.

Only the points in FIG. 3 different from those in FIG. 1 will be described. In the camera signal processing circuit 3, the detection data of the white balance sensor 20 is input to the system control 9 and processed, and the color balance is adjusted. The signal indicating the white balance adjustment amount is sent to the ID signal generator 10 and then multiplexed with the image signal (image information) by the recording signal processing circuit 4.

The signal obtained by multiplexing the white balance information on the image signal thus obtained is used for the magnetic recording head 5.
Is recorded on the recording medium 6.

Next, the operation of the reproducing apparatus in the electronic camera system of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
Only the points different from the first embodiment will be described.

The ID signal read into the ID signal detection circuit 16 enters the system control circuit 17, and the white balance information in the signal is sent to the DSP 18.

Here, it is assumed that the white balance information is the information that the color temperature is particularly low. In that case, since the gain of B (black) is increased considerably, the B noise is large. Therefore, the amount of B noise reduction correction is increased.

On the contrary, it is assumed that the information indicates that the image was taken in a state where the color temperature was particularly high. In this case, since the R (red) gain is high, there is a lot of R noise. Therefore, the amount of R noise reduction correction is increased.

In addition to the above, the DSP 18 performs f special correction, color correction, and other various corrections and improvements. In the processing, the white balance information is added as described above, and particularly noise reduction control is performed. It is more preferable to control the amount.

[Other Embodiments] Although the recording medium is a 2 ″ video floppy disk in each of the above-described embodiments, the recording medium is not limited to this, and another recording medium,
For example, a magnetic card, a hard disk, or the like may be used as long as the sensitivity setting state at the time of shooting the image or the white balance information is recorded together with the image information.

In general, noise reduction correction and f-characteristic correction are often processed adaptively according to the image condition (for example, noise reduction correction is strongly applied to a flat portion or a dark portion). Further, sensitivity information may be further added to this, and the amount of noise reduction correction and the amount of f special correction may be comprehensively controlled based on these information.

Further, in the above-mentioned second embodiment, the amount of noise reduction correction is controlled based on the color temperature information, but other amount of correction, for example, the amount of correction of color reproducibility is controlled. You may That is, when the color temperature is extremely high (or low), it is considered that the color tends to be blue (or red). Therefore, the correction may be controlled.

[0040]

As described above, according to the electronic camera system of the first aspect of the present invention, the sensitivity increase setting value set at the time of photographing is recorded together with the image information, and the information is also recorded in the image processing at the time of reproduction. In addition, by controlling the noise reduction correction and the f special correction, it is possible to obtain an overall high image quality.

Further, according to the electronic camera system of the second aspect of the present invention, white balance information is multiplexed and recorded on the image information, and in the image processing at the time of reproduction, noise reduction correction and color correction are performed based on the information. By controlling the reproducibility correction, the amount of noise can be reduced and correct color reproduction can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration on a camera side in an electronic camera system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a reproducing apparatus side of the system.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a camera side in an electronic camera system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 solid-state image sensor 4 recording signal processing circuit (recording means) 6 recording medium 8 sensitivity changeover switch (sensitivity setting means) 18 DSP (control means)

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An electronic camera system that captures an image as an electric signal by a solid-state imaging device, records the image on a recording medium, and reproduces the recorded image, and a sensitivity setting unit that sets a sensitivity at the time of photographing, and the sensitivity setting unit. Recording means for recording the setting condition of 1) together with the image information, and control means for performing at least one of noise reduction correction control and f special correction control based on the setting condition by the sensitivity setting means during reproduction. Electronic camera system. 2. A second control means for adaptively performing at least one of the noise reduction correction control and the f special correction control according to the image information, the second control taking into account setting conditions by the sensitivity setting means. 2. The electronic camera system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic camera system is controlled by means. 3. An electronic camera system which captures an image as an electric signal by a solid-state image pickup device, records it on a recording medium, and reproduces the recorded image, and recording means for recording white balance information together with the image information at the time of photographing, and reproducing. An electronic camera system comprising: a control unit for performing noise reduction control and color correction control based on the white balance information.